What animal made these tracks in our apiary?

Part Nine: The End of a Decade, The Beginning of Something New

December was full of time spent with family and friends and tons of laughter. While our cats used to be the topic of conversation, everyone now wants to hear about our bees. I wish I had more of an update for inquiring minds, but we haven’t been able to do much lately but watch and wait.

As usual, I still go out to the hives a couple times a week and look around, making sure no critters are bothering them (Tim got a trail camera for Christmas, but we haven’t set it up yet – stories from that to come!) I sometimes lightly tap on the sides of each hive to hear that increased hum that lets us know they’re still alive.

What’s going on with all the dead bees at the entrance?

During my regular inspections at the beginning of the month, I noticed a ton of dead bees on the bottom boards, clogging up the entrances to both hives. Big Girl’s entrance was a lot more clogged than Kha-bee-si’s. This worried me and has also worried many other first year beekeepers that I know.

My fears were slightly alleviated when I asked about this at Betterbee. I was told that some bees die every day (obviously!), but when it is warmer outside, beekeepers don’t see the full breadth of it because “undertaker bees” remove the dead from the hive. It’s a normal part of their housekeeping duties. In the colder months, all of the bees are clustered to keep brood and each other warm. So, when a bee dies, it just drops to the bottom board. If no warm days come along, the cluster never breaks and the undertaker bees can’t “clean house.” Thus, we see a larger number of dead bees than usual gathered on the hive’s bottom board.

If the pile of dead is too dense at the entrance, it could prevent bees from going on their cleansing flights on those rare warm days. When I take a look at my hives, I check the entrance and bottom board to be sure the way out isn’t clogged up. If it is, I use the entrance reducer or a stick to scrape out and remove the dead. Big Girl was a larger colony going into winter, so naturally her hive would have a larger number of dead bees on the bottom board. This all makes logical sense but is still very frightening to witness as a first-year beekeeper!

Using a fancy tool to see the cluster

I saw that a few beekeepers in a Facebook group used a Flir infrared camera to view temperature changes in their hives, revealing the location of the cluster. It’s also a quick way to tell if a hive is alive… or not. I discovered that we have a simple Flir camera on-site here at Betterbee. These cameras can be very expensive, but some contractors use them and may let you borrow one.

Tim and I went on a fun mission to do a quick infrared check on our hives. We temporarily removed their hive wraps and checked on each. I’ll never call myself a professional IR camera user, but we did see a visible warmer-colored round-sized area on each hive. The tap test also yielded a response from both hives, so we deduced that the clusters were where we saw them through the IR camera, and that both hives are alive!

We’re going to bee together for life!

In a fun twist of events, Tim proposed to me on New Year’s Eve Eve! The trials and tribulations of being bee parents must have really sealed the deal. We’re looking forward to many more years of beekeeping together. I’m hoping our bees give us the best celebratory gift ever and live through until spring!

Thank you for following along this year. 2020 should be another eventful year of beekeeping!

Your Betterbee-ginner Beekeeper,
Quinn

“I heard you’re gonna bee married soon!” Our biggest bee-loving fan, Riley, drew us this perfect engagement card!

A Year in the Life of a Beginner Beekeeper Series

Part One: Tackle Your Fear by Experiencing the Wonder of the Honey Bee
Part Two: Plan and Prepare for Your Bees
Part Three: First Hive Inspection
Part Four: Ask Experienced Beekeepers Questions, Get Helpful Answers 
Part Five: The Beekeeping Journey has Many Twists and Turns, Surprises and Regrets
Part Six: Newspaper Combining, Drone Culling, and Honey Harvesting, Oh My!
Part Seven: Preparing for Winter 
Part Eight: Lessons in Mites and Moisture
Part Ten: Winter Feeding & a Heart-Wrenching Loss
Part Eleven: Eagerly Awaiting Spring
Part Twelve: Exiting Winter Isolation & Kicking Off Mite Management